1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for making a zipper breach evident, and more particularly a device for making a zipper breach in luggage evident.
2. Description of Related Art
There are many types of baggage locks which are used to lock together the zipper pullers on luggage, thereby preventing the zipper from being opened by unauthorized personnel. Many of these locks are approved by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and have means for allowing a master key to open the locks by TSA approved personnel.
However, a luggage zipper can be easily breached by use of a pointed article, such as a ball point pen. The term “zipper breach” in this application means the use of a sharp pointed item, such as a needle, ball point pen, or screw driver, to break into (open) the zipper track so as to break into a piece of luggage. Furthermore, the luggage zipper can be re-zipped by simply sliding the lock with the zipper pullers locked thereto around the path of the zipper, thereby re-zipping the luggage. When re-zipped, there is no visible evidence that the luggage has, in fact, been breached. Such breaching of luggage where no evidence is left that the luggage was breached, is a significant security threat since items could be placed in a piece of luggage without knowledge of the owner of the luggage, even though the luggage zipper is locked with a TSA approved luggage lock.
As noted above, once there is a zipper breach, a person can slide the zipper pullers attached to a lock (usually the zipper pullers are locked by a padlock) to seal the gap of the zipper (i.e., re-zip the zipper) so that the luggage appears as if it had not been breached. This means that an unauthorized person can steal items from a locked piece of luggage within seconds; yet, the lock is not being tampered with nor is there evidence of the zipper breach. This is a serious problem which can make the owner of the luggage feel unsafe, especially, when there are valuable items placed in luggage. Such theft of items would typically not be noticed until the luggage lock is unlocked and the luggage opened. Furthermore, such a zipper breach could be used by a terrorist or smuggler to insert some type of contraband into the luggage. Therefore, there is a need to restrict the movement of the zippers so that the gap of the zipper cannot be resealed once there has been an unauthorized zipper breach.